BVA approves full-time return to classrooms

By Christine Haines

chaines@yourmvi.com

Students in the Belle Vernon Area School District will head back to their classrooms four days a week starting Monday and five days a week beginning Feb. 8, but not all board members agree with that plan.

The new schedule was approved  Monday night in a 5-4 vote and will apply to all students except those whose parents have opted for a full virtual model.

Voting for the modified return to school were directors Dan Kovatch, Joel Whiteko, Justin Kosanko, Michele Callaway-Rodriguez and Joe Grata. Voting against the plan were Rob Harhai, Dan Engstrom, Kathy Forte and Stacey Livengood.

“I am not in favor of the proposed plan. I think we have a better chance of keeping students in school with the hybrid plan,” Livengood said. “When we bring them back, they will not be six feet apart.”

“I support it. It gives parents the choice of full remote or in person,” Callaway-Rodriguez said.

Kosanko said he is seeing the damage that not attending classes in person has been doing to children in the community and he’s tired of hypocritical policies.

“If we continue to see big businesses open, why do we keep closing our schools because of contact tracing?” Kosanko asked.

District Superintendent Dr. Michele Dowell said contact tracing requirements and any restrictions related to that are dictated by the state Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Department of Education, not individual schools, administrators or school boards.

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